Water rushing over oil Oil loving loving waves Waves seeping seeping seeping Through the corals sleeping sleeping Who are you? Who are you to be human? Who am I? Who am I to be human? Water rushing over oil Oil licking licking bottles Bottles drifting plastic paradise Paradise is of our making Making unmaking paradise […]
The poor have the best views, Views sloping down to sea. A green and yellow planet, A blue band, rung with stars. The poor have the best views. You have to walk to get there. Up three flights, narrow paths, Houses rising steeply side to side. No, no space for a car. When the flag […]
Each January in Salvador, Brazil, at the Church of Our Lord of Bonfim, worshippers wash the steps and dress all in white to honor the divinity, who is associated with the Yoruba god Oxalá, creator of the world. He is linked to a peaceful end (bom fim). The worshippers take vows to him by tying […]
I want only to be rhythm. I am done with things, I don’t want to be a thing Not a person Not an object of fame or admiration I want only to be rhythm I want to pack up my things And burn them So when I float off […]
for Moisés J. Nascimento The mango I think was the same mango you were thinking of when you thought of the mango On the counter, between us, the pile of fruits Red and green and yellow skins And the little flies with their opal wings Legging across the oval of their little fruity planets But it […]
for Mario and Maria Nascimento There, babes are held In arms, on the pulse Of the chest, Not, as in the States, away In the distant island of the stroller. There, food is not fuel But a chance of meeting— Have you eaten? A form of greeting. There, on the walls of Belo Horizonte, someone […]
in the airport I see Aeneas from a distance Aeneas has her helmet on it is white and smudged from a distance the helmet of Aeneas smudged with the light of the desert I touch her arm Where are you off to? I ask her I’m with the National Guard, she says I’m off to […]
where is the war? is the war in the ampules of the morning dew, globules whole and peaceful? or is the war rather in the lavender geodes cut open on the jeweler’s counter? does the war live in the classroom, children pacing out slow textbooks? where is the war? is it in the overriding calm […]